What is functional training?
Functional training is exercise that helps train movement and strength in all 3 anatomical planes of motion. The body knows only movement and not muscles. When you reach down to pick up an object from the floor, do you consciously consider each much you are going to recruit and to what degree to perform that action. Of course the answer is no, all you consider is the movement.
So why is it that so many people continue to focus on working muscles in isolation, when is real life muscle work together in an integrated way. The answer is probably ignorance of the alternatives or the desire to build big “dumb” muscles. Consider why it is that a cricket player can throw a ball further than a bodybuilder. With such large muscles, you might have expected the bodybuilder to be able to generate greater forces, however the truth is that the cricket player has trained the body to perform a specific, coordinate movement pattern.
Functional exercise should train the body to perform the everyday tasks of daily life more effectively. The simplest way to start perform functional exercise is to stand up when exercising. If you exercise seated or on a bench it is unlikely to be functional. The seat or bench also takes away the opportunity for other muscles within the body to aid the exercise movement. Traditional machine based exercise is ideal for developing strength with the muscles, but functional exercise will train coordinated and powerful movement of those muscles.
In sport as in life, exercise generally occurs in an unstable, unrestricted and unsupported environment. Ask yourself whether your own exercise is effective training.
Muscles contract and extend concentrically and eccentrically. Concentric refers to the contraction of the muscle against gravity, eccentric refers to the elongation of the muscle against gravity. If you curl a dumbell as in a bicep curl, the concentric movement occurs as you curl the dumbell upwards the eccentric movement occurs as you slowly lower the dumbell back towards the floor. In life muscle “load” before they “unload”. Consider again the action of throwing a ball. Before you can project the ball forward you must eccentrically load the muscles by drawing the arm backwards and coiling the torso and legs. You then unload the muscles concentrically by contracting the muscles and and uncoiling. Traditional resistance exercise does not train this movement.
Functional exercise can lead to better muscle balance, improved joint stability and greater resistance to injury both in sport and in life.
So get up and get functional!
